Preparing for Coronavirus?

[Cheerful]

Can't see my mother for an indefinite period. Her retirement home has banned visitors. Residents are prohibited from leaving the building.

Sorry, spork.  Maybe they can arrange some Skype/Zoom/FaceTime sessions for residents and their loved ones?

[Caracal]

To get a good on-line course one needed an instructor who had already taught the course on-site, was willing to go on-line, and spend time on the project.

Yes, they won't be good courses. I have no intention of trying to teach a good online course this semester. I am just vaguely adapting the course I have and slapping it online. It will probably be boring to the students, I will be generous with grading, students will get their credits and we will all muddle through because there is pandemic going on and this isn't the most important thing right now.

[dismalist]

Yes, absolutely correct. Trade-offs everywhere one looks.

I put all this to my daughter, a graduated graduate student and a then successful TA. She advised: No problem. Everybody gets an A. :-)

[kaysixteen]

So what are we going to do with courses and whole degree programs that simply can't realistically be taught competently online, but whose students must effectively learn the material covered therein, say, like in medical school?

[Hegemony]

Their education and their graduation are going to be delayed. As during wartime.

[dismalist]

Their education and their graduation are going to be delayed. As during wartime.

That would be the honest way of planning and then announcing things.

[nebo113]

The Word has come down from on high: we have two days to shift all instruction online.

Have fun.

Can't see my mother for an indefinite period. Her retirement home has banned visitors. Residents are prohibited from leaving the building.

No visitors at my mother's retirement home but so far, she's been able to leave (she still drives) but another meeting this morning. 

[polly_mer]

Their education and their graduation are going to be delayed. As during wartime.

That would be the honest way of planning and then announcing things.

Some things can be done online or at least checked online because not all of the program has to be done in a lab or other physical project space.  However, yes, the practical solution is to delay through incompletes or through shifting content for the rest of the program (i.e., up to 5 years) for those who are in the midst of their education. 

Being a few weeks short for the final term in the engineering programs with which I'm familiar mostly means the projects don't get completed.  That's far less concerning to letting people go out into the world as graduates than missing the middle of a program like half of calculus III or half of fluid mechanics.

[spork]

Turns out that a lot of faculty here are asking for loaner laptops from our IT department because they don't have their own computers at home. And apparently they don't have a university-issued laptop either (I've been here for over a decade and was issued a laptop on Day 1).

I guess there are some faculty who still do everything via photocopies.

[Diogenes]

Turns out that a lot of faculty here are asking for loaner laptops from our IT department because they don't have their own computers at home. And apparently they don't have a university-issued laptop either (I've been here for over a decade and was issued a laptop on Day 1).

I guess there are some faculty who still do everything via photocopies.

Is it your adjunct pool perhaps? My school only has some loaner laptops adjuncts can use during classes, otherwise they have to use their own laptops for everything else.

[Caracal]

Turns out that a lot of faculty here are asking for loaner laptops from our IT department because they don't have their own computers at home. And apparently they don't have a university-issued laptop either (I've been here for over a decade and was issued a laptop on Day 1).

I guess there are some faculty who still do everything via photocopies.

Is it your adjunct pool perhaps? My school only has some loaner laptops adjuncts can use during classes, otherwise they have to use their own laptops for everything else.

Still seems a little strange. Are there really academics under the age of 80 who don't have a laptop?

[mamselle]

When I was adjuncting I had to use loaners because my regular laptop had crumped and I couldn't afford a new one for a couple years.

M.

[spork]

Turns out that a lot of faculty here are asking for loaner laptops from our IT department because they don't have their own computers at home. And apparently they don't have a university-issued laptop either (I've been here for over a decade and was issued a laptop on Day 1).

I guess there are some faculty who still do everything via photocopies.

Is it your adjunct pool perhaps? My school only has some loaner laptops adjuncts can use during classes, otherwise they have to use their own laptops for everything else.

Possibly. But this would indicate adjuncts who limit themselves to the photocopy routine for everything. I know of at least two full-time faculty who are probably the same.

[mahagonny]

State university does not issue a loaned computer to adjunct faculty.

Turns out that a lot of faculty here are asking for loaner laptops from our IT department because they don't have their own computers at home. And apparently they don't have a university-issued laptop either (I've been here for over a decade and was issued a laptop on Day 1).

I guess there are some faculty who still do everything via photocopies.

Is it your adjunct pool perhaps? My school only has some loaner laptops adjuncts can use during classes, otherwise they have to use their own laptops for everything else.

Possibly. But this would indicate adjuncts who limit themselves to the photocopy routine for everything. I know of at least two full-time faculty who are probably the same.

Do you even know any adjuncts?

[spork]

I know many, some of whom I hired when I've been a department chair. And I've worked as one. Keep in mind that the universe doesn't revolve around whatever single lens you choose to see it through.